Ecclesiastes 1

New International Version

Everything Is Meaningless

1 The words of the Teacher,^[a]^(A) son of David, king in Jerusalem:^(B)

²“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”^(C)

³What do people gain from all their labors
    at which they toil under the sun?^(D)
⁴Generations come and generations go,
    but the earth remains forever.^(E)
⁵The sun rises and the sun sets,
    and hurries back to where it rises.^(F)
⁶The wind blows to the south
    and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
    ever returning on its course.
⁷All streams flow into the sea,
    yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
    there they return again.^(G)
⁸All things are wearisome,
    more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,^(H)
    nor the ear its fill of hearing.
⁹What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;^(I)
    there is nothing new under the sun.
¹⁰Is there anything of which one can say,
    “Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
    it was here before our time.
¹¹No one remembers the former generations,^(J)
    and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
    by those who follow them.^(K)

Wisdom Is Meaningless

¹²I, the Teacher,^(L) was king over Israel in Jerusalem.^(M) ¹³I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens.^(N) What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!^(O) ¹⁴I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.^(P)

¹⁵What is crooked cannot be straightened;^(Q)
what is lacking cannot be counted.

¹⁶I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me;^(R) I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom,^(S) and also of madness and folly,^(T) but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

¹⁸For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;^(U)
the more knowledge, the more grief.^(V)

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Footnotes

Ecclesiastes 1:1 Or the leader of the assembly; also in verses 2 and 12

Romans 8:18-25

New International Version

Present Suffering and Future Glory

¹⁸I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.^(A) ¹⁹For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God^(B) to be revealed. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it,^(C) in hope ²¹that^[a] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay^(D) and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.^(E)

²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning^(F) as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,^(G) groan^(H) inwardly as we wait eagerly^(I) for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.^(J) ²⁴For in this hope we were saved.^(K) But hope that is seen is no hope at all.^(L) Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.^(M)